Main menu

Tag Archives: so much closer

Post navigation

Ten years ago this summer, I took a massive career risk when I left teaching to become a full-time author.

I only had one book out at the time, with absolutely no idea if my future books would sell, or how many books I would have published. But I refused to let fear prevent me from creating my dream bigger life. Failure was not an option.

And now today, because of you, we have all of this.

THANK YOU. Thank you for making this life possible. None of this would be possible without my readers, the most dedicated, passionate, caring readers in the world. You are why I write. You are why I keep hope alive every single day.

My appreciation for you is abundant. If you enjoyed any of the City Love trilogy books, would you kindly share a review online? Your opinion matters to me, and your bright stars can attract new readers. THANK YOU for your kindness!

1. The NYC Teen Author Festival was, as usual, amazing. This year 1,500 readers came to see over 120 authors. Many literary funtivities ensued. Oh, and if you heard that this year was the 10th Annual NYC TAF, that was just a rumor. Next year will be the 10th, which I’m sure will bring the level of amazing up several notches.

You may recall a certain NYC TAF event last year in which someone you know did a handstand. Although I was hoping David Levithan and I would participate in more acrobatics this time around, I wanted to have a backup plan ready to deliver the dazzle. So when I heard I was going to be on a panel at McNally Jackson with Adam Silvera, of course I had to bust out the silver accents. Because fabulousness.

2. You might be wondering what happened to Adam’s arm. Let me take you back a couple hours before this photo was taken (by OG booklover Mitali, who knows all the things, including the best angle to take a hot pic). We all went to dinner before our panel. Every time I see Nicola Yoon, I bring whatever new Little Prince collector’s item I’ve recently acquired to show her. Our mutual love for The Little Prince is fierce and unwavering. You can see most of my Little Prince collection in this video, in which I fangirl hardcore over Everything, Everything.

So back to dinner. You guys, it was wild. One second we were eating. I was really into this delicious mint cucumber lemonade that was just so perfectly refreshing. And I was enjoying this big salad (because I always enjoy a big salad) with tofu and sundried tomatoes and the good kale. The next thing I knew, Adam and Nicola threw down some serious arm wrestling action. Naturally I documented for you.

As you can see, Nicola had already done some damage to Adam’s other arm by the time she moved in on this one. Which of course I also documented. But I didn’t want to shame Adam by posting Nicola’s win. In case you happen to see Adam in the near future, please note that he is pretending his injury happened some other random way. Let’s go along with him to be supportive, okay?

3. You know that book events are my fave part of being an author because that’s where I get to meet you in person! Sometimes I even get gifts, which blows my mind. And not just any gifts. My readers give me the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts ever. Like these lucky stars from Ciel. Each one is a warm fuzzy to brighten my day. Just like Sadie would make in the City Love trilogy (and So Much Closer)!

4. Speaking of warm fuzzies, I am seeking out the warm fuzzy feels by being on the lookout for spring flowers. New York City isn’t quite bursting with them yet, but I will be ready when they bloom, which always seems to happen overnight like a sweet surprise. Spring flowers are the BEST flowers. Tulips, lilies, daffodils, and my fave, hyacinths. Hyacinths smell SO good. I will be sniffing them up every chance I get.

5. Don’t you love when your mug matches the book you’re reading? This super cute photo from Dana just had to be shared.

This spring will be all about enjoying the Now, sniffing the flowers, and practicing daily gratitude. Being thankful for the things you do have feels a lot better than being disappointed by the things you don’t. So cherish everything good in your life, and thank your lucky stars for all that makes you grateful.

TGIM! Today’s Top Five is going to be cat quick, as I am on deadline with line edits and have snuck over here like a ninja. So here are some super fast things…

1. New York City! I will be at the Barnes & Noble B-Fest this Friday, June 10 from 5:00 to 7:00pm at the Citigroup Center B&N. There will be games and prizes, including a raffle of those ginormous canvas book covers hanging all over the store! Hope to see you there.

2. I am loving this Booklist review of Lost in Love: “Teens who are drawn to new-adult titles and dream of romantic, parent-free summer escapades will be well rewarded.” Like all of my previous books, the City Love trilogy is YA, but I was hoping it would have crossover appeal. Good to see Booklist agrees! You can explore Lost in Love things here, and City Love here.

3. So there’s this sculpture called Looking Up by Tom Friedman that is on temporary display on Park Avenue. The second I read about it, I knew I had to go see. I mean, Look up is one of my main mottos, even right on the cover of City Love. It’s also a theme in So Much Closer. My whole thing is that we miss so much when we don’t look up. When we look up, not only do we discover beauty and history that we probably passed without noticing a hundred times before, but we invite positive energy into our day that can make magic happen. Anyway, I bookmarked an article about the sculpture and made a note to go see it before July.

The other day I was walking down the street when I looked up and noticed a cool sculpture. It was of a guy looking up. I was like, “Sweet! Look up!” But I totally forgot about the sculpture I had bookmarked. The next day I found it and realized I was on Park Avenue when I saw the guy looking up. I saw Looking Up without even realizing it at the time…all because I looked up. Full-circle meta, yo.

Then last night I looked up from my computer to look out my window and saw this.

There were lots of rainbow pics on social after the storms we had. But how many of those rainbows were radiating from a water tower? And dude, I have a thing for water towers. Always look up…

4. Taking a fangirl moment, I just have to say that this diagram perfectly quantifies my eternal love for the soul mate magic of How I Met Your Mother and Jason Segel as Marshall.

I have been a huge Paul Simon fan since forever, so this dorktastic intersection of a fave musician and a fave show in science/math form blows my mind. Well played, HIMYM.

5. I will leave you with a warm fuzzy for the week about your time. Make the days count.

Happy springtime, friendly neighbors! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that spring is officially here…and that I have a new book coming out really soon. The second book of the City Love trilogy, Lost in Love, comes out on May 3.

Which means it’s time for a contest to win signed advance copies of Lost in Love!

Excuse Chez for not getting out of bed this time. He’s been sort of…lost since Dave retired.

Sadie, my girl from the City Lovetrilogy and So Much Closer, is all about random acts of kindness. Making warm fuzzies for people she knows and doesn’t know is part of her initiative to help make the world a better place. What is a warm fuzzy? Sadie has a pretty strict definition. But for the purposes of this contest, a warm fuzzy is any note or image that can brighten someone’s day. Warm fuzzies can be made from inspirational quotes, like this one I made from a Taylor Swift quote that I think is on point:

They can consist of only one word, and/or use mixed media:

They can be gifts to cheer someone up made from actual paper, old-school style:

Basically, a warm fuzzy has the intention of making someone feel better, get inspired, or even just smile. Show your #citylove with a warm fuzzy and you can win a signed advance copy of Lost in Love! You may use an existing warm fuzzy or create your own. Text can be your original message, an existing quote, song lyrics…whatever you feel can help make someone’s day better.

2. Post a warm fuzzy on Twitter and/or Instagram with #citylove and tag me, @susanecolasanti. You may post the same warm fuzzy on both Twitter and Instagram for a double entry.

3. You may post as many different warm fuzzies as you would like. However, each warm fuzzy posted will only be counted as one entry on Twitter or Instagram (it will be counted twice if posted on both Twitter and Instagram).

Contest rules:

1. Two signed advance copies of Lost in Love will be awarded to two contest winners.

2. All entries must be posted by March 29, 2016 at 11:11pm EST.

3. Winners will be announced on Twitter and/or Instagram. Each winner will have three days to email their name and address to me, susanecolasanti at gmail.

4. This contest is US only. However if you live abroad but know someone in the States who can receive your book for you, you may enter and have the book sent to their address.

Twelve was an extremely difficult age for me, but it was also an age when I figured a lot of stuff out. I knew I wanted to be a science teacher when I was 12. I knew my purpose in life as a grownup would be to help teens in any way I could. And I knew that I didn’t belong in Middle of Nowhere, New Jersey, in a small town at a school where I was bullied every day for being an outsider. My true home was out there somewhere. Not stuck in the middle of the woods, completely isolated and feeling so alone. I was determined to find the place where I truly belonged.

I stayed with my grandparents most summers of my teen life. The summer I was 12, I was staying up late watching The Tonight Show with Gram. Gram understood that I was a night person. After Johnny Carson said goodnight, a show called Late Night with David Letterman came on. I asked Gram who David Letterman was. She said, “He’s kind of like Johnny, but wackier.” Anyone who was wacky, zany, dorktastic, a hardcore nerd, or proud to be original in their own quirky way was a winner in my book. So I kept watching. Dave threw a pencil at the camera. He made weird faces. He threw a pencil at the window behind him with a sound effect of glass shattering.

David Letterman instantly became my hero.

I obsessed over Late Night that whole first summer, learning Dave’s tricks and idiosyncrasies. Connecting to things he said in a way that made it clear he was my people, and gave me hope that more of my people were out there. The energy of New York City was palpable. It was an energy that radiated from the screen, an energy that made me feel alive. New York City was clearly my destiny. It was my true home. It was the place where everything that made me different would make me shine. The New York City energy Dave showed me was a drug that kept me going all through high school as I carried hope in my heart that one day I would live there. I looked forward to the time when I could be free to be the best version of myself. As a reminder, I put a Late Night tee on my koala bear Chez, who is featured in When It Happens in the same tee. Chez is an attention hog who has photo bombed several book giveaway pics over the years:

I taped Dave’s show every night. The first thing I did when I got home from school was get my Late Night notebook, rewind the tape, and watch Dave show me more of what I had to look forward to. For the length of his show, I felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. I was in on the joke. I was one with Dave’s community. I wrote down the title of every Top Ten list, every description of “And now, a man who…”, and lines that made me laugh. One was, “I’ll give you 500 dollars if you let me take my teeth out.” I don’t know why that line resonated with me. Probably just because it was so weird. I wrote it on the top of an algebra quiz in 8th grade because my 8th grade algebra teacher seemed like the kind of dude who would watch Dave. Dave’s lines became like this secret language I could use with certain grownups to make me feel included in something. But my teacher didn’t get it. He gave the quiz to a guidance counselor who called me into her office and asked if I was okay.

Of course I wasn’t okay. I was miserable. But every day was one day closer to living in New York City. One day closer to when I could create a happy life for myself and start turning my big dreams into reality. And that made surviving worth it. When I say that David Letterman is why I’m here, I don’t just mean here in New York City. I mean here. Along with the books that saved me, he helped me survive the worst time of my life. He showed me a reason to keep holding on.

When I was fourteen, I sent a postcard in for Late Night tickets. They said it would take like a year to get your tickets. The first tickets I received were for April 24, 1989, one week before my 16th birthday:

As you can see from these Late Night tickets (which are so vinatge that the NBC building wasn’t called 30 Rock, or even the GE Building, but the RCA Building) , anyone under the age of 16 would not be admitted. But there was no way I wasn’t getting in. Fortunately this was back in the day when ID wasn’t checked. They let me and my friend in and it was a completely overwhelming experience that made me even more determined to live in New York City.

I became obsessed with New York. The opener of Late Night started by zooming in across the water to the Twin Towers. The Twin Towers became a symbol of hope for me and the focus of every sketch, painting, clay impression, collage, and photographic paper etching I made in art class. I would go to the library at lunch and research New York, learn its buildings and streets, draw maps of the Village. Also in that Late Night opener was a part where the camera zooms through Old Town Bar. Of course I now live on the same street as Old Town Bar. Love that full-circle non-coincidence.

My inspiration for writing So Much Closer came straight from all of this. So Much Closer is the story of Brooke, a Jersey girl who dreams of living in New York City and finally has a chance to move there. This is why I acknowledged Dave in So Much Closer. Brooke wears the same Late Night tee Chez does and nails a Letterman question at trivia night. My publicist sent Dave’s personal assistant a copy of the book. She also included a letter from me in which I thanked Dave for changing my life and making the world a better, smarter, kinder place. See that Late Show ticket from May 4, 2015? Dave’s assistant remembered me from So Much Closer and was super generous in giving me tickets for his final month of shows. I was nervous about picking which day I wanted because it was impossible to know who would be on. But it turns out that I picked the best possible date. Because who was Dave’s guest on May 4?

Oh, you know. Just President Barack Obama. The Universe was totally on my side.

One of the things I respected most about Dave is his passion for improving public understanding of science, particularly with respect to global warming and environmental preservation. Dave had on physicists, environmentalists, and climatologists in an effort to help his viewers understand the detrimental effects we are having on our planet and how we can all be a part of the solution. Dave even had on my old boss from NASA, Dr. James Hansen, who was rocking the same Birkenstocks he always wore to work. But that’s what was cool about Dave’s show. It wasn’t about glitzy appearances and superficial interviews. It was about the heart and soul of us. It was about the truth, and innovation, and making a difference. David Letterman made this world a better place. And I know he will continue to do so, whichever path he chooses to take next.

This is how a guy as weird as I was showed me where I belonged. By dropping watermelon off the roof, crushing car doors in a 90-ton hydraulic press, with “I be hypnotized” and asking what else Just Bulbs has and rocking those Adidas with blue on the back and whipping all of those pencils at the camera. David Letterman showed me that it is okay to be exactly who you are. More than okay, actually. He showed me that by being exactly who you are, you can inspire more people than you’d ever dreamed and help others in ways you can’t even imagine.

Thirty years ago I was a 12-year-old outsider searching for my true home. David Letterman showed me that New York City was my destiny. Thanks for showing this lost girl where she belonged, Dave. Thanks for helping me survive the worst time of my life. And thanks for showing all the outsiders that they are not alone ❤